TL;DR: A standard American king steps one diagonal on dark squares, four possible directions, captures adjacent. A flying king (international and some “pool” rules) rides an empty diagonal and can capture at range, then maybe fly onward. If your king slides three empty squares on this 8×8 site and gets rejected, you are flying in a walking country. Walk. If you are in a flying country and you step one when you could land behind their last man from six away, you are walking in a flying country. Fly.
Walking kings: four neighbors
Look at the four dark neighbors. Empty: you may step. Occupied by you: no. Occupied by them with empty beyond: you may jump, then maybe chain. That is the whole movement. There is no “slide to the end.” Sliding is a memory from international videos. Memory is an illegal move toast. Toasts are the curriculum for walkers who binge fly content.
Walking kings still lose to holes. Four directions means four beyond-squares to audit. Audit is slower. Slower is why endgames need more clock than openings. Budget it.
Flying kings: the empty road
If the diagonal is empty, the king may land anywhere on it (details vary: some require landing immediately beyond a captured piece, then flying on). Capture: you need a victim with a landing past them, not necessarily adjacent in the walking sense—the road up to the victim must be empty. After the capture, majority rules may force more flying takes. Flying is a different geometry. Geometry includes long shots you would never see in American walk. Seeing is a scan down the whole diagonal, not the next square. Next-square scanning is the walking habit. Drop it when the chip says fly. Dropping habits is the skill. The skill is expensive the first week. Pay it in unrated flying rooms, not in a rated walk room by accident.
On 8×8 walk lobbies, do not practice flying. Practice walking four-neighbors. Practice is specific. Specificity is the variant article’s whole personality.
Crowning into a flyer
Some rules: the man becomes a flyer mid-chain and continues. Some: stop. If you continue in a stop-country, toast. If you stop in a continue-country, you leave extra takes on the table and maybe violate majority. Majority plus flying is a final exam. Do not take the exam on a site that never offered flying. Exams need a classroom. Classroom is the chip.
If the animation puts a crown and then still highlights far landings, you are in fly-continue. If the highlights are only adjacent, you are in walk, even with a hat. Hats do not change the country. Chips do. Watch highlights, not hats. Hats are cosmetics plus a verb set. Verb sets are highlights. Highlights are the truth.
Endgame: shuttle versus long shot
Walking two-kings vs one often deals with the double corner shuttle. Flying kings laugh at some shuttles because they can wait on a long diagonal and snipe. If you import shuttle technique into flying, you will shuttle into a sniper. Snipers are flyers on open roads. Open roads are what you must close in flying endgames. Closing is parking a man as a roadblock, knowing they can capture it if the beyond exists. Roadblocks are sacrifices or structures. Structures are a flying textbook. Textbooks are not this 8×8 blog’s default. Default is: if you are walking, shuttle math; if you are flying, scan the full diagonal every time they move. Every time. Full. Diagonal. That is the flying endgame in one rude sentence.
Walking endgames: do not scan six squares away for a snipe that cannot exist. Scanning six away is wasted clock. Wasted clock is a flying habit in a walking game. Habits need customs. Customs: chip, then scan distance. Distance is one square or the whole line. Pick. Then move.
Teaching the difference in one board
Set a king with three empty dark squares ahead. In walk, one step. In fly, up to the end. Same position, two legal sets. If a student clicks the far square on a walk board, celebrate the idea and reject the click. Rejection is the lesson. If they only ever click adjacent on a fly board, show the snipe once. Once is a firework. Fireworks should not replace the chip check. Chip check every game. Every. Game. Because queues mix. Mix is the internet. The internet is why this article exists. Kitchen tables picked one ruleset and kept it for 40 years. Tabs pick a new country in one click. Clicks are cheap. Countries are not. Do not pay a country tax because a king icon looked the same. Icons are not passports. Passports are 8×8 vs 10×10 plus walk vs fly. Read both. Then your king goes where the law allows, which is the only place a king has ever gone, in any country, including this one, tonight, on this clock, with this hat, on these dark squares, and not one square farther than the chip paid for.
