Why does the knight move in a L shape?

Why does the knight move in a L shape? I always wondered that.. sometimes i see a horce race on t.v. and i never see them run zigzag or anything.. so why the L shape? Why didnt they make it so they can jump 2 sqaures in front of them or on the side and are allowed jump over pieces?

I don't know. Because the knight's horse leaps forward two squares and then the knight uses his sword to attack the enemy next to him?

It's drunk and can't walk straight!

it is a horse, horse can jump

for the last q:

Good question... I've also never seem foot soldiers prancing through the battlefield to reveal themselves queens.

Most likely this is the Bishop's case, running around after undefended peons.

I suspect Mr. Chess and his buddies had a few too many and decided on it's moves as a joke.

It's the only piece whose move the queen can't do. So royals should treat their subjects kindly.

haha that's funny

Well as a practical guess, if the knight moved either straight or diagonally, two squares with the ability to jump, it would only have access to four squares on any given move. With the L-shape maneuver, it has access to eight.

Also, if it only moved two squares, straight or diagonally, a knight would always be restricted to the color squares that it started the game on.

With both of these, such a piece would be considerably weaker than its minor piece counterpart, the bishop.

It doesn’t move in an L-shape. It moves diagonally: from one corner to the opposite corner of a rectangle, 3 squares by 2 squares.

meaning it moves in a L type of formation

Does no one else on this site study wars?  I guess that's why I'm the guy with the hammer and you aren't.

Calvery are for flanking!  Actually, any really mobile unit is for flanking, but especially calvery.  (They're also used as scouts in wars, but not so in chess).  This is why the United States still has Armored Calvery units - to flank and attack from the side or rear while the main force confronts the bulk of the enemy.

LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvary

I didn't know famous religious sites flanked people. That must be why there is so much trouble in the Middle East.

Lol!  My bad.

 Yes your bad.

Good observation. This should be "cavalry," not "calvary." Still, aquiredtaste has the right idea. Part of the idea of the knight maneuver is to flank. And since the Knight is not a horse but a man on a horse, the odd maneuver reflects the knight's ability to guide the horse he's riding (to an extent). In other words, since the Knight comprises two entities (the man riding the horse), the move should sensibly consist of two parts as well, to reflect the added agility of the athletic horse. Conversely, the Knight has access to a maximum of eight squares (as opposed to the "equal" Bishop's maximum of 13) because the horse is still an animal with a mind of its own.

(This idea of the Knight being a man on a horse [posts #2 and #3] is often overlooked or forgotten. It's one drawback to IM Jeremy Silman's instructional method. In general, he's a very fine instructor, but he uses "knight," "horse," and "beast" interchangeably, and I believe this actually perpetuates the confusion a little bit.)

That's the net movement direction, but if it actually moved in an "L" shape, actually traversed that pattern, it wouldn't be able to get to its final square if there were pieces on any intervening squares along the "L" path.  The Knight doesn't really follow a path the way all the other pieces do.  It basically teleports directly to its final square regardless of what's on any other squares.